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Ali Wykhuis and Angie Heiney own Frock Boutique. Frock Boutique was established in 2003 and strives to carry the most eccentric, eclectic, affordable and whimsical fashions available from locally designed and produced items. Today Frock Boutique has five employees and two locations, one in Portland’s Alberta district and a recently opened second store in Seattle. They have completed both the Retail Small Business Management Program and the Small Business Management Program.

Even in the modern age of global telecommuting, the importance of your physical storefront can't be understated. The internet didn't kill retail stores and maybe it never will, especially when you consider the importance of the customer experience. The fact that the retail store still thrives doesn't mean that the role of the retail store hasn't changed though. In today's post, we'll discuss the importance of your physical storefront, as well as touch on what the consumer expects in an integrated, synchronized consumer world.

This is the summary of a white paper written by Global Corporate College (GCC), a partner withCLIMB. GCC provides effective training on topics that matter most to businesses.

In GCC's white paper "Focusing on the Value of Training," it is proven that effective training and successful employees increase overall profit.

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Carl Pruett is the owner and education consultant of Tutor Doctor of Portland. For 15 plus years, Tutor Doctor has provided affordable one to one in-home tutoring for students of any age. Tutor Doctor of Portland is a franchise that employs 128 tutors as independent contractors today. Carl participated in the 10-month 2015 Small Business Management program. 

The PCC CLIMB Center is a proud sponsor of Portland Radio Project's Biz503 show - the new Portland-centric startup and small business talk show on PRP.fm.

Unfortunately, living and working with difficult people is unavoidable. While they're a little easier to manage in our personal lives, at work, it can become a struggle to balance professionalism and quality work with putting up with distractions and setbacks. Today's post discusses nine best practices for working with difficult people so you can keep your sanity while accomplishing your goals and completing projects on time.

Your food business is your baby, which makes it hard to let go of any aspect of your business. But just like hiring the right staff to do the work you can't, at some point your business needs to hire the right contractors to help you with work neither you nor your staff can handle so you can focus on helping your business grow. The benefits of outsourcing for small business owners is undeniable, and in this post, we'll discuss why outsourcing your food business tasks is so important.

National Mom and Pop Business Owner's Day is on March 29th. In honor of day, today's post will tell you how "mom and pop" shops can out compete the big brands.

Community Connectivity — Citizens

No matter how altruistic or charitable a big brand may be, they can never really participate in community the way that a small business can. After all, big brands aren't tied to any one location, and the people in charge of them, even on a local level, need to concern themselves with multiple, regional locations and issues. Local businesses not only depend on the community to thrive, but they're capable of giving back in many more personal and meaningful ways. Every action that a local business takes within the community not only garners brand trust and a positive brand image, it also builds community pride.

Becoming an entrepreneur and opening your first business is thrilling and rewarding, but it's not without its risks. After all, so many that are inspired by the American dream and the glowing success of startups, fail and close their doors for good. Today's post will discuss the five most common small business pitfalls as well as how you can avoid them and come that much closer to lasting success.

The PCC CLIMB Center is a proud sponsor of Portland Radio Project's Biz503 show - the new Portland-centric startup and small business talk show on PRP.fm.